1 liter, three cylinder, 71 hp engine with a five-speed automated manual transmission will power DaimlerChrysler’s Smart Fortwo two-seater automobile, for sale in the U.S. in 2008. It’s on tour in more than 50 cities, May-November this year. Engineering continues on the U.S. version; over 40 mpg is expected. In business news, on May 14, DaimlerChrysler announced that Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm, will take over an 80.1% equity position in Chrysler and its related financial services business for about $7.4 billion, with Daimler retaining a 19.9% share. www.smartusa.com, www.daimlerchrysler.com

$175 is the new price for the “One laptop per child” effort up from the original target of $100. Another change is availability of Linux or Microsoft software. The computer, powered with a hand crank, is designed to bring technology to economically challenged youth outside the U.S. www.laptop.org/laptop

12 international trade fairs comprise Hannover Fair. More than 230,000 visitors attended the 5-day April event, up more than 10% on the last directly comparable year, 2005. Dates for 2008 are April 21-25. See p. 83. www.hannovermesse.de

7 base units are listed in the first table of “Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)” by U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology. They are meter (m), kilogram (kg), second (s), ampere (A), kelvin (K), mole (mol), and candela (cd), which are, of course, length, mass, time, electric current, thermodynamic temperature, amount of substance, and luminous intensity. www.nist.gov

63% of more than 1,000 automation system integrators providing information about themselves for the 2007 Control Engineering Automation Integrator Guide, say they consider programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and remote terminal units (RTUs) among their engineering specialties. The Automation Integrator Guide is online at www.controleng.com/integrators. To read the other 9 areas of expertise, search “63% PLCs” at www.controleng.com

2 ways to look at quality, says the Juran Institute Quality eReport newsletter Vol. 32, are quality improvement (gets rid of problems one by one) and quality planning (gets rid of the source of the problems). www.juran.com

15 questions are part of a nuclear power quiz for young people at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Website. Have you explained technology to your children? Maybe these questions could be a fun summer activity to keep the brain going while school’s out. www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/quiz/index.html

3 concentric circles in the O³neida (Oooneida) logo represent its operation “as a network of networks focused on fostering distributed industrial automation based upon open standards.” Among efforts for the Canadian not-for-profit corporation is to examine impediments to the automation of smart assembly processes. www.oooneida.info